Biochemical and biophysical characterization of an unexpected bacteriolytic activity of VanX, a member of the vancomycin-resistance vanA gene cluster.

VanX is a d-alanyl-d-alanine (d-Ala-d-Ala) dipeptidase encoded in the vancomycin-resistance vanA gene cluster. Here we report that strong bacteriolysis occurred when isolated VanX was expressed in Escherichia coli at temperatures lower than 30 °C, which was unexpected because the vanA operon confers vancomycin resistance by protecting the cell wall. Therefore, we monitored cell lysis by measuring sample turbidity with absorbance at 590 nm and VanX expression using SDS-PAGE. No cell lysis was observed when VanX was expressed, even in large quantities, in the cell inclusion bodies at 37 °C, suggesting that a natively folded VanX is required for lysis. In addition, VanX mutants with suppressed dipeptidase activity did not lyse E. coli cells, confirming that bacteriolysis originated from the dipeptidase activity of VanX. We also observed shape changes in E. coli cells undergoing VanX-mediated lysis with optical microscopy and classified these changes into three classes: bursting, deformation, and leaking fluid. Optical microscopic image analysis fully corroborated our interpretation of the turbidity changes in the samples. From a practical perspective, the finding that VanX expressed in isolation induces cell lysis suggests that inhibitors of VanA and VanH that act downstream from VanX could provide a new class of therapeutic chemicals against bacteria expressing the vancomycin-resistance gene cluster.

Extraction of recombinant protein from Escherichia coli by using a novel cell autolysis activity of VanX.

Escherichia coli is a versatile, low-cost, and popular host for expressing recombinant proteins. However, extracting recombinant proteins from E. coli requires cell wall breakage, which is both time- and effort-consuming. Here we report a novel cell breakage method based on our recent finding that VanX, which is a d-Ala-d-Ala dipeptidase encoded in a vancomycin-resistant VanA gene cluster, exhibits a strong cell lysis activity when expressed in isolation in E. coli. In our strategy, we coexpress VanX with the target protein, causing cell autolysis and release of the cellular content into the culture medium. We demonstrated this strategy for two model proteins, a green fluorescent protein variant (GFPuv) and Gaussia luciferase, and optimized the autolysis conditions and coexpression vectors. The fluorescence activity of GFPuv collected from the medium was identical to that of GFPuv purified by conventional methods. Cell breakage by VanX-mediated autolysis is very simple to implement and will efficiently complement traditional methods.

Solubilization and folding of a fully active recombinant Gaussia luciferase with native disulfide bonds by using a SEP-Tag.

Gaussia luciferase (GLuc) is the smallest known bioluminescent protein and is attracting much attention as a potential reporter protein. However, its 10 disulfide bond forming cysteines have hampered the efficient production of recombinant GLuc and thus limited its use in bio-imaging application. Here, we demonstrate that the addition of a short solubility enhancement peptide tag (SEP-Tag) to the C-terminus of GLuc (GLuc-C9D) significantly increased the fraction of soluble protein at a standard expression temperature. The expression time was much shorter, and the final yield of GLuc-C9D was significantly higher than with our previous pCold expression system. Reversed phase HPLC indicated that the GLuc-C9D variant folded with a single disulfide bond pattern after proper oxidization. Further, the thermal denaturation of GLuc-C9D was completely reversible, and its secondary structure content remained unchanged until 40°C as assessed by CD spectroscopy. The (1)H-NMR spectrum of GLuc indicated sharp well dispersed peaks typical for natively folded proteins. GLuc-C9D bioluminescence activity was strong and fully retained even after incubation at high temperatures. These results suggest that solubilization using SEP-Tags can be useful for producing large quantities of proteins containing multiple disulfide bonds.

Biophysical characterization of highly active recombinant Gaussia luciferase expressed in Escherichia coli.

Recently, the smallest bioluminescent protein (MW: 19.9 kDa), Gaussia luciferase (GLuc), has been isolated from the marine copepod Gaussia princeps and has attracted much attention as a reporter protein. However, preparation of large quantities of homogeneous natively folded recombinant GLuc appears to be difficult due to its ten cysteines. Here, we report the biophysical characterization of recombinant GLuc expressed using a novel Escherichia coli expression system based on a cold induced expression vector (pCold). Using this system, a large fraction of the protein was expressed in the soluble fraction. GLuc, purified exclusively from the supernatant using nickel affinity chromatography, yielded a large amount of pure GLuc with a native disulfide bond pattern (Soluble-GLuc). Soluble-GLuc had a strong bioluminescence activity and it retained 65% of its activity after 30 min incubation at 95 degrees C. Soluble-GLuc remained fully folded until 40 degrees C, as assessed by circular dichroism; and the thermal denaturation curve was S-shaped, indicating a cooperative transition, with a midpoint temperature of 56 degrees C. These results indicate that both the structure and bioluminescence activity of GLuc remain stable at high temperatures, and they strongly suggest GLuc's potential as a reporter protein.

Crystal structure of an extensively simplified variant of bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor in which over one-third of the residues are alanines.

We report the high-resolution crystal structures of an extensively simplified variant of bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor containing 20 alanines (BPTI-20st) and a reference single-disulfide-bonded variant (BPTI-[5,55]st) at, respectively, 1.39 and 1.09 A resolutions. The sequence was simplified based on the results of an alanine scanning experiment, as reported previously. The effects of the multiple alanine substitutions on the overall backbone structure were surprisingly small (C(alpha) atom RMSD of 0.53 A) being limited to small local structural perturbations. Both BPTI variants retained a wild-type level of trypsin inhibitory activity. The side-chain configurations of residues buried in the hydrophobic cores (<30% accessible surface area) were almost perfectly retained in both BPTI-20st and BPTI-[5,55]st, indicating that neither multiple alanine replacements nor the removal of the disulfide bonds affected their precise placements. However, the side chains of three partially buried residues (Q31, R20, and to some extent Y21) and several unburied residues rearranged into alternative dense-packing structures, suggesting some plasticity in their shape complementarity. These results indicate that a protein sequence simplified over its entire length can retain its densely packed, native side-chain structure, and suggest that both the design and fold recognition of natively folded proteins may be easier than previously thought.

Thermodynamic and structural analysis of highly stabilized BPTIs by single and double mutations.

Enhancing protein conformational stability is an important aspect of protein engineering and biotechnology. However, protein stabilization is difficult to rationalize as it often results from the small cumulative and intertwined effects of multiple mutations. Here, we analyzed the mechanisms behind a remarkable 13 degrees stabilization produced by a single A14G and a double A14GA38V mutation in BPTI-[5,55], a natively folded bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor variant. Differential scanning calorimetry analysis of three BPTI-[5,55] variants (A14G, A38V, and A14GA38V) indicated that the A14G mutation stabilized the structure enthalpically, whereas the A38V stabilization was entropy driven. We also determined the structure of the A14GA38V mutant at 1.09 A resolution, whereas the A38V variant did not crystallize, and we previously reported the A14G variant's structure (2ZJX). The overall structures of the A14G and A14GA38V variants were very similar to that of wild-type BPTI, but small local structure perturbations around residues 14 and 38 strongly suggested potential factors contributing to the enthalpy stabilization. First, the A14G mutation displaced the local backbone structures around residues 14 and 38 by up to 0.7 A, presumably increasing local van der Waals interactions. Next, this displacement produced steric clashes between neighboring residue's side-chains in all but the variants containing the A14G mutation. Noteworthy, these clashes are not predicted from the wild type BPTI structure. These observations provide one of the first unambiguous analyses of how a subtle interplay between the sidechain and backbone structures can have a major effect on protein stability.

Improved protein splicing reaction for low solubility protein fragments without insertion of native extein residues.

Application of trans protein splicing has been limited both by solubility problems and by the insertion of native extein residues (NERs) at the splicing site. Here, we report two simple methods for overcoming these problems and increasing the yield and activity of the spliced product. First, low solubility was alleviated by adding arginine to the reaction buffer and optimizing the splicing reaction condition. The protocol was demonstrated in the context of a Green Fluorescent Protein variant (GFPuv), and the final yield was increased by 1.9-fold compared to control experiments performed under the same conditions but without addition of arginine. Second, the insertion of NERs was overcome by mutating, instead of inserting, a minimal number of residues in the target protein to amino acids required for the splicing reaction. We identified optimal splicing sites that conserve as much as possible the prerequisite NERs. As a result, the GFPuv residues 142-146 (EYNYN) were mutated to the reportedly minimal required NERs, EYCFN. GFPs spliced using this strategy had no NERs insertion and a fluorescence activity six times stronger than a control GFPuv with five NERs inserted at the splicing site (residue 145/6). In principle, the present protocol (Sw/oNI) can be applied to any target protein, even when no sequence similarity to NERs is present, though it will introduce up to five mutations at the splicing site.